CINEMATIC REVELATIONS allows me the luxury of writing, editing and archiving my film and television reviews. Some reviews appeared initially in "The Commercial Dispatch" and "The Planet Weekly" and then later in the comment archives at the Internet Movie Database. IMDB.COM, however, imposes a limit on both the number of words and the number of times that an author may revise their comments. I hope that anybody who peruses these expanded reviews will find them useful.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

A patient, pipe-smoking Edward G. Robinson pursues an elusive Nazi war criminal Orson Welles in his third movie set after World War II. This tightly-knit, black and white, film noir thriller co-starring Loretta Young, Richard Long, and Billy House as Mr. Potter. The technical credits are beyond reproach, especially Russell Metty’s first-rate cinematography, Ernest Nims’ evocative editing, and top-flight performances by a uniformly superb cast. No, “The Stranger” (*** out of ****) isn’t as tour-de-force as “Touch of Evil,” but “The Stranger” ranks as one of Welles’ more palatable melodramas with intrigue and atmosphere galore. Anybody that enjoys a gripping cat and mouse nail-biter should find themselves wrapped up in this edgy yarn. It helps considerably that the hero is a rather ordinary fellow blessed with superior intuition that a cunning, cold-blooded villain challenges right up to his comeuppance. Robinson’s mousy detective, Orson Welles’ cornered Nazi war fugitive, and Loretta Young’s deceived wife who stands poised between them make this movie worth watching several times.

According to the Internet Movie Database, “The Stranger” represented the first Hollywood movie to show the infamous Nazi concentration camps. Furthermore, “The Stranger” remains Welles’ only film to make a profit, and the lean, mean, no-nonsense pacing underlines the brilliant simplicity of this film. Welles appears at his least pretentious, creating not only solid, three-dimensional characters with his hero, heroine, and villain, but also conjuring up the conservative mind-set in an entire community in a remote corner of Connecticut, far removed from the outside world. You feel like you’re watching a white-knuckled thriller in the setting of “It’s A Wonderful Life.” Ironically, for all its virtues, Welles had little complimentary to say about “The Stranger.” Many sources quote him as saying the “The Stranger” qualifies as “the worst of my films. There is nothing of me in that picture. I did it to prove I could put out a movie as well as anyone else." This alone distinguishes Welles and makes “The Stranger” loom even larger in his oeuvre. Clearly, “The Stranger” isn’t something that you can easily dismiss, even when most copies are public domain prints.

A tireless government investigator, Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson of “Little Caesar”), with the Allied War Crimes Commission, Department 12 finds himself at the end of his tether. Wilson has been hot on the trail of a notorious Nazi officer, Franz Kindler, who--in Wilson’s words--evinced “the most brilliant of the Nazi minds” and conceived the theory of genocide, mass depopulation of conquered countries so that regardless of who won the war, Germany would emerge the strongest in Europe, biologically speaking.” Kindler disappeared after the war and destroyed all clues to his identity from Poland and Germany, and nobody has been able to find him. Wilson convinces his reluctant colleagues to release from prison convicted Nazi war criminal Konrad Meinike (Konstantin Shayne of "Vertigo") in hopes that the latter will lead Wilson to Kindler. Wilson is prepared to shoulder the burden of the blame if his plan backfires. Indeed, he is so committed that he smashes his pipe on a table to drive his fanaticism home. Afterward, Wilson repairs the pipe, wrapping tape around the stem, and uses it as if it were none the worse for wear.

Meinike believes that God intervened on his behalf so he could escape from the Allied War Crime captors, and he sets out to find fellow Nazi Franz Kindler. Studio executives slashed about 30 minutes from the film as Meinike searches for Kindler in South America. Welles took issue with their decision to eliminate this part. In all fairness, however, they have accelerated the pace and brought the film to its setting in Harper, Connecticut where most of the action occurs. Sources say that producer Sam Siegel authorized the deletion because that half-hour slowed down the action. Nevertheless, Meinike learns of Kindler’s whereabouts when he obtains picture postcard with the image of a church steeple. Presto, Welles fades to the church in Connecticut and Meinike looks for History Professor Charles Rankin who teaches at the Harper School for Boys.

After he arrives in Harper, Meinike stashes his suitcase at Mr. Potter’s store. Although Potter amounts to little more than a peripheral character, Billy House’s chummy performance makes quite an impression. Largely, it is the way that Potter runs his store. Potter remains seated behind the cash register while his customers serve themselves and then pay him. Occasionally, he lures Wilson and Rankin separately in games of checkers, dons his visor, and beats them. Potter and his method of transacting business is a different as well as distinctive touch in another otherwise fascinating but formulaic film. Anyway, Meinike suspects that he may have been followed and uses gym equipment to knock Wilson unconscious. Meinike visits Mary Longstreet (Loretta Young of “Ladies Courageous”) in his search for Rankin. The meeting between Meinike and Mary turns out to be crucial and Mary discovers later on that not only her life but the life of her husband hangs by the string of that encounter. She directs him to Rankin and the two ex-Nazis meet his deep in the woods so that nobody can see them. Rankin strangles Meinike and conceals the corpse. Welles shows his villainous character seize Meinike by the throat, but then Rankin lowers Meinike behind a large bush and kills him with his bare hands. As the director, Welles supplements the scene with suspense because several college students are playing a paper chase game and cavorting in the woods. Frantically, Rankin scrambles to move the paper trail that is dangerously close to Meinike’s body.

Not long afterward, the cold-blooded Rankin marries Mary Longstreet. Meanwhile, Wilson noses around Harper and masquerades as an antiques dealer compiling a catalog of Paul Revere silver. He meets Mary’s father, liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Adam Longstreet (Philip Merivale of “Adventure”) and receives an invitation to dinner one evening. Wilson suspects Rankin may be the evil Kindler because clocks obsess both men. Furthermore, Rankin has been repairing a church clock that has been inactive for years. During the conversation at the Longstreet residence, Rankin makes a comment that incriminates him in Wilson’s eyes. Rankin makes a disparaging observation about Karl Marx that Wilson initially dismisses. Later, Rankin drives Mary’s dog Red away from digging up the corpse. When Rankin kicks Red, the film cuts to Wilson waking up to the realization that Rankin is Kindler. “Who but a Nazi would deny that Karl Marx was a German because he was a Jew? Earlier, Wilson was prepared to leave Harper, deciding that Rankin was “above suspicion.”

Eventually, Meinike’s body is found and Mary stands between her husband and justice. Wilson enlists the aid of Mary’s brother Noah (Richard Long of “The Big Valley”) and they keep an eye on her. Eventually, they discover the dead dog. Rankin begins to get nervous and concocts a story (not unlike the George Stevens’ movie “A Place in the Sun”) about a boating accident and the accidental death of a girlfriend and how a relative has tracked him down and tries to blackmail. Rankin confides in Mary that he had to kill the blackmailer and convinces her not to aid the authorities. Mary becomes the weakest link in the plot. She really believes that her husband is incapable of having committed heinous acts of genocide. Stoutly, she defends him against his accusers. Rankin realizes that Mary represents a threat so he tries to arrange it so that she will visit him in the church steeple and fall to her death while climbing a ladder to the belfry. Mary’s housekeeper distracts Mary so that she cannot keep her appointment with Rankin while he establishes his alibi by playing checkers with Mr. Potter. Instead, Wilson climbs the ladder and nearly dies. The indefatigable Wilson closes in on Mary. He shows the concentration camp films to both Mary and her father and tries to rattle Mary, but she stands by Rankin.

The biggest flaw in “The Stranger” is how did Rankin arrive in America and acquire a job as a college teacher. Sometime John Huston collaborator Anthony Veiller penned the screenplay that leaves out some important information that occurred during the missing South America scenes, but for the most part, Veiller and other writers who worked on “The Stranger” supply us with most of what we need to know. Veiller wrote “The Night of the Iguana,” “The List of Adrien Messenger,” “Moulin Rouge” and “Beat the Devil” for Huston. Previously, Veiller had contributed his writing skills to Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight” series. Veiller’s collaborator on “The Stranger” was German born Victor Trivas who received an Oscar nomination for penning the original story that Veiller rewrote as the screenplay. The ending atop the church steeple is a corker!

The Wayans clan, who made the first two “Scary Movie” spoofs, show no mercy with their latest parody “Dance Flick,” an uproariously crude, lewd, and rude roasting of dance movies. Specifically, “Dance Flick” pokes fun at “Fame,” “Save the Last Dance,” “Drumline,” “Hairspray,” “Center Stage,” “Step Up,” “Roll, Bounce,” “Stomp the Yard,” “Step Up,” “Step Up 2 the Streets,” and the “High School Musical” movies. “Dance Flick” ranks as the best parody movie since “Superhero Movie” (2008). Moreover, the Wayans have ripped into some classics, such as “West Side Story” and “Singing in the Rain.” Indeed, the fun of most parodies is spotting the movie being jeered first and hoping second that you’ll cheer the jeers. Even if you loved the movie getting mocked, a good parody can make you appreciate your favorite movie more because it pays tribute to it.

Not nearly as scatological as the first two “Scary Movies,” “Dance Flick” relies on the usual hilarious sight gags that the Wayans deploy throughout their derivative, often lowest-common-denominator, storyline to skewer the conventions and cliches of those terpsichorean tales. Unless you’ve seen the aforementioned films, you may not be laughing when others are roaring. Sometimes, the Wayans insert some pungent political satire into this brisk 83 minute epic, but it doesn’t distract from the overall antics. You rarely have enough time to read all the whacky wall signs plastered in every shot because the film flies by so quickly.

After her mom dies in a tragic auto accident rushing to her daughter’s Juilliard dance audition, Megan (Shoshana Bush of “Fired Up”) relocates to the big city to live with her destitute father (Chris Elliot of “Cabin Boy”) in his condemned apartment. Like everything else in the audacious “Dance Flick,” the demise of Megan’s mother is played strictly for laughs. In fact, she escapes from her wrecked vehicle, only to be struck by a car with a Lindsay vanity license tag. Another vehicle with a Brandy vanity tag hits her. Finally, a third vehicle with a Halle vanity tag strikes her. Appropriately enough, a black female dressed as Cat Woman flees from the accident. After Halle hits her, Megan’s poor mom flies through the air and lands in her freshly dug grave.

Meanwhile, Megan enrolls in an inner city high school, Musical High School. She meets Thomas (Damon Wayans Jr.) and they become an item. Megan has shunned dancing since her mom’s accidental death. Eventually, Thomas persuades her to take up hip-hop dancing. Later, on their first big date, Thomas takes Megan to the ballet. Megan is shocked. The ballet recreates the events that culminated in her mom’s death involving a stalled gasoline tanker truck along with those reckless celebrity drivers with vanity tags.

Aside from Thomas, Megan meets a variety of oddballs at Musical High. The first day at lunch in the cafeteria, the entire student body breaks into a routine from the movie “Fame” where everybody plays a musical instrument, including a blind kid named Ray (George Gore II) who displays exceptional piano skills. The "Fame" lyrics has been altered to something considerably more salacious as well as silly. Megan’s ghetto hall locker neighbor is Charity (Essence Atkins of “How High”) and Charity hauls her infant son to school everyday and hangs him in her locker while she attends classes. Megan discovers that Charity’s brother is none other than Thomas! In another “Save the Last Dance” scene, Charity reprimands Megan for her interracial romance with Thomas when African-American gals are running out of their own race to date.

Imagine the usual line-up of characters in teen dance musicals. Each has a counterpart in “Dance Flick,” right down to the pairing an obese “Hairspray” type girl and her dream boy jock who would rather play Juliet in “Romeo & Juliet” than dribble for his father’s high school basketball team. Megan gapes when she meets her dance class instructor, Ms. Cameltoé (Amy Sedaris of “Bewitched”), who lives up to her descriptive surname. Meanwhile, Thomas and his main man, A-Con (Affion Crockett of “Soul Men”), have their own troubles. A-Con is a street hoodlum with no ambition, but Thomas aspires to be a gynecologist. Thomas dreams of attending Jus Community College. They have a dance crew that participates regularly in street dance competitions. They have lost $5-thousand during their last street dance contest. Now, they owe the five grand to a local gangsta, Sugar Bear (David Allen Grier of “An American Carol”), and he demands his dough. Sugar Bear resembles Jabba the Hutt of “Star Wars” and cannot consume enough candy, pies, and sugary treats.

Primarily, director Damien Wayans has taken "Save the Last Dance" and crossed it with “Step Up 2 The Streets,” supplementing it with characters from other movies like "Hairspray," "Ray," and "Fame.” For instance, the obese girl, Tracy Transfat (Chelsea Makela), who attends Musical High, is modeled on chubby Tracy Turnblad from “Hairspray” while the basketball coach's son resembles Zac Efron from “High School Musical.” Grier is riotous in an obvious fat suit as Sugar Bear and Chris Elliott plays Megan’s sordid, low-life father. Naturally, the entire Wayans clan gets in on the action. Shawn plays Charity’s baby’s daddy. Shawn has several amusing scenes. Marlon ranks as the most outrageous as an idiotic drama teacher who has made only one movie. He played a slave in a “Mandingo” plantation movie where he cut off his leg. Keenen Ivory plays street dance promoter Mr. Stache with the whitest fake teeth you’ve ever seen.

The Wayans have been masters at politically incorrect parodies since their Fox-TV series “In Living Color” (1990-1994), and they ridicule stereotypes mercilessly here for maximum merriment. They rag straight people, gay people, black people, white people, teachers, and drunken celebrities. When A-Con tells Thomas that he cannot become a doctor because he has guns for hands, he displays his gun hands and calls himself Edward Triggerfingers after the Johnny Depp movie “Edward Scissorhands.” Altogether, “Dance Flick” is a cakewalk of a comedy.